"They did actually come to my work. Basically they called me a stupid f...ing bitch, a mouthful of swear words."

She said her employer complained to police and she suspected police had spoken to those running the Facebook site.

She said the online comments included accusations against childcare workers who were named.

Ms Izzard said she was not as worried as many people would be, especially younger people, and had stopped her involvement. The abusive comments had since been removed.

Tasmania Police said recently that it was increasingly receiving complaints about online postings, but warned it often could not help.

"Police are only able to take action to remove content where the content itself is in breach of the criminal law, for example child exploitation images, and are only able to take prosecution action where the conduct is in breach of the criminal law," Acting Inspector Luke Manhood said.

He said matters involving threats to physical safety should be reported to police.

The Hobart incident is the latest in a series which has thrown attention on online bullying and hateful "trolling" on Facebook and Twitter.